In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass–and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

My Thoughts:
You know that moment when you start a series and there comes a point where you realise you care more about the characters and what is going to happen than your own life? Yeah, that’s what happened here.

I honestly haven’t read too much fantasy – Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings aside – so I was a little worried I wasn’t going to get into this one despite the amazing reviews I had seen and been told, but boy was I wrong. I, very quickly, became invested in the characters lives; I wanted to understand them, get to know them better, see love and happiness for them, and just see what the heck was going to happen with their story lines.

Celaena Sardothien is a complete badass who still cares for shoes and clothes; she is such a great female character and I think all girls should get to know her. I wanted to be her and I wanted to be her best friend.

Second to Celaena my favourite character is Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall. I love him. So much. His character development and thought process throughout the novel was so interesting. So many feelings…but those will be looked at further in my Crown of Midnight review.

The Crown Prince (Dorian) and the Princess of Eyllwe (Nehemia) were also fantastic and engaging characters.

Basically, all the characters in the series are fantastic which is always something I look for in books, but especially in series.

There is no pure good in this story – though I think it is fair to say that the bad guys are pretty bad. All the characters have these amazing layers you can’t wait to dive into.

This novel is very clearly a set up novel that will allow the world and the story to grow as the series continues (as we will look at in future reviews).

Only one thing stood out to me as a negative; I found that there was a lot of repetition of titles. There is only so many times I need to hear that Celaean is Ardalan’s Assassin. Repeated way too many times.

Overall, the book was so great – a world set up book, but amazing nonetheless.

My Rating:
4.5 out of 5 stars. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good fantasy series that has an extremely strong female lead.

Favourite Quotes:“Libraries were full of ideas–perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”

“No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.”

“My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.”

“Sometimes, the wicked will tell us things just to confuse us–to haunt our thoughts long after we’ve faced them.”